A blog for people looking for less conventional careers and seeking to find meaning in their work, offering links to sites giving guidance on finding your passions, identifying your skills and information about unusual jobs.

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Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Recently I have had conversations with two very different people in very different careers facing a very similar issue.

The first is an artist, mostly working in metals, producing sculptures for both the monumental and interior design markets. He trained in art and is passionate about creating new art and new designs. He has reached a point in his career where he is taking on so many commissions as well as producing limited edition runs of pieces that he needs help. He has taken on an apprentice. This however means that he now has to spend as much of his time teaching, monitoring and managing his 'staff' as he does actually creating art. He also now has to deal with salary, insurance and other administrative issues he was able to avoid as a one man operation.

The other is a computer systems developer who studied business and computing and who loves designing systems and has moved up in her career to become a manager at a major international company, and has now become responsible for a team of staff. She spends most of her time allocating projects, monitoring and guiding her own staff and reporting up the chain of command, to the extent she barely has any systems work of her own to do.

It seems it is fairly common for people with a passion for their career to reach a stage at which they are no longer working to their passion but are managing others. Is this the point at which The Peter Principle kicks in?

Has your job changed beyond recognition or are you able to retain the work you love without sacrificing progress?

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Please note I am not a professional careers advisor and can not offer individual advice, there are however plenty of such advisors on the blog, try the Tag cloud for advisors, agents and other experts. All links are provided for information. NotThe9to5 is not responsible for content of other websites.